Synthesis and application of silica and calcium carbonate nanoparticles in the reduction of organics from refinery wastewater

Oil refinery is one of the fast growing industries across the globe and it is expected to progress in the near future. The worldwide increase in the generation of refinery wastewater along with strict environmental regulations in the discharge of industrial effluent, persistent efforts have been devoted to recycle and reuse the treated water. The wastewater from the refining operation leads to serious environmental threat to the ecosystem. Therefore, this study aimed to synthesize silica (SiO₂) and calcium carbonate nanoparticles (CaCO₃) in the reduction of organics from refinery wastewater. The synthesized nanoparticles were employed in the reduction of chemical oxygen demand (COD) from refinery wastewater by studying the influence of solution pH, contact time, dosage of nanoparticles and stirring speed on adsorption performance. From the batch experimental studies, the optimized processing conditions for the reduction of COD using SiO₂ nanoparticles are pH 4.0, dosage 0.5 g, stirring speed 125 rpm and 90 min stirring time, and the corresponding values for CaCO₃ nanoparticles are pH 8.0, dosage 0.4 g, stirring speed 100 rpm and 90 min stirring time. The study demonstrates that SiO₂ and CaCO₃ nanoparticles have a promising future in the reduction organics from refinery wastewater in different pH regimes.     

Analysis of the hot bands in the 2ν9 band region of propyne-d3

The rovibrational spectrum of 2ν₉ band of CD₃CCH is overlapped by two prominent hot bands identified as (2ν₉⁰+ν₁₀^±1)(E)←ν₁₀^±1(E) and 3ν₉^±1(E)←ν₉^±1(E), where ν₁₀ and ν₉ are the degenerate CCC and CCH bending fundamental vibrations, respectively. Assignment of lines to the transitions of these hot bands were carried out with the help of the high-resolution spectra recorded at ∼195 K and at room temperature. Molecular parameters for these hot bands have been obtained from the rotational analysis of the partially resolved K-structure lines. Only Q-head of the third hot band , originating from the lower 2ν₁₀ state could be identified.     

Size effect on doped single walled carbon nanotubes

Considering impurity doping in small sized carbon nanotubes of diameter around 0.4 nm, we have calculated the donor binding energy by increasing the dopant concentration through a screening function that includes the curvature effect. We could observe the sudden fall in donor binding energy and metallic behaviour of the smaller single walled carbon nanotubes around 10¹¹/cm² (0.0026%) of impurity concentration. This result is useful for nano electronic device application such as nano diodes and switches.     

Time-Cost Trade-Off Analysis in Some Constrained Assignment Problems

Several variations of two-dimensional (workers x jobs) and three-dimensional (workers x jobs x machines) time- as well as cost-minimizing assignment problems, which arise owing to (i) precedence relations of some form among the jobs or (ii) capacity restrictions on workers/machines imposed by the requirement that the surplus resources have to be fully employed, have been considered in the literature. In this paper, an algorithm is presented for time-cost trade-off analysis which is applicable to any general pair of such constrained problems. The algorithm is also illustrated by a numerical example.     

Pulsed photoacoustic technique to study nonlinear processes in liquids: Results in toluene

Pulsed photoacoustic measurements have been carried out in toluene at 532 nm wavelength using a Q-switched frequency doubled Nd:YAG laser. The variation of photoacoustic signal amplitude with incident laser power indicates that at lower laser powers one photon absorption takes place at this wavelength while a clear two photon absorption occurs in this liquid at higher laser powers. The studies made here demonstrate that pulsed photoacoustic technique is simple and effective for the investigation of multiphoton processes in liquids.     

Preparation and Characterization of Chitosan Thin Films on Mixed-Matrix Membranes for Complete Removal of Chromium

Herein we present a new approach for the complete removal of Cr^VI species, through reduction of Cr^VI to Cr^III, followed by adsorption of Cr^III. Reduction of chromium from water is an important challenge, as Cr^IV is one of the most toxic substances emitted from industrial processes. Chitosan (CS) thin films were developed on plain polysulfone (PSf) and PSf/TiO₂ membrane substrates by a temperature-induced technique using polyvinyl alcohol as a binder. Structure property elucidation was carried out by X-ray diffraction, microscopy, spectroscopy, contact angle measurement, and water uptake studies. The increase in hydrophilicity followed the order: PSf < PSf/TiO₂ < PSf/TiO₂/CS membranes. Use of this thin-film composite membrane for chromium removal was investigated with regards to the effects of light and pH. The observations reveal 100 % reduction of Cr^VI to Cr^III through electrons and protons donated from OH and NH₂ groups of the CS layer; the reduced Cr^III species are adsorbed onto the CS layer via complexation to give chromium-free water.     

Study of phase coexistence in YVO3 and LaVO3

The coexistence at low temperature in YVO₃ and LaVO₃ of two competing phases with defined orbital and spin orientations is studied by Raman spectroscopy. The temperature evolution of the phonons indicates that phase coexistence, due to strain in YVO₃ and fluctuations in LaVO₃, is not restricted to small R ionic radius in RVO₃ compounds. Also, a typical temperature at 50 K is inferred from the temperature dependence of the intensities in LaVO₃. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Comparison of Gelfand-Tsetlin Bases for Alternating and Symmetric Groups

Young’s orthogonal basis is a classical basis for an irreducible representation of a symmetric group. This basis happens to be a Gelfand-Tsetlin basis for the chain of symmetric groups. It is well-known that the chain of alternating groups, just like the chain of symmetric groups, has multiplicity-free restrictions for irreducible representations. Therefore each irreducible representation of an alternating group also admits Gelfand-Tsetlin bases. Moreover, each such representation is either the restriction of, or a subrepresentation of, the restriction of an irreducible representation of a symmetric group. In this article, we describe a recursive algorithm to write down the expansion of each Gelfand-Tsetlin basis vector for an irreducible representation of an alternating group in terms of Young’s orthogonal basis of the ambient representation of the symmetric group. This algorithm is implemented with the Sage Mathematical Software.